Yahoo Updates to Challenge Google Friend Connect, Facebook Connect

Data portability: it’s one of those buzzwords that everybody just has to be in on these days. From OpenID to Facebook Connect to Google Friend Connect, there are more and more ways to use a single login and take your information anywhere on the web. And today there’s one more: Yahoo Updates through a partnership with JS-Kit.

JS-Kit is described as a “distributed social network connecting more than 600,000 sites.” Sites on that network using the JS-Kit comment widget are already hooked in to Yahoo Updates, enabling users to publish stories and comments from around the web onto their Yahoo Updates feed. Users will also be able to take their Yahoo ID with them around the web. (Starting to sound a bit familiar?) With glittery new APIs, this is all part of Yahoo’s Open Strategy (remember that?).

And if you’re still a bit unclear as to what exactly all this nebulous “data portability” stuff is and why it’s so popular, RWW offers a good explanation:

The vision for all these kinds of systems is that allowing readers to authenticate themselves with a trusted 3rd party makes them more likely to post comments, offers exposure to site owners when comments are syndicated into activity streams on bigger sites and should allow site owners to access verified information about their readers’ profiles and interests. That last part is still something we’re waiting for, but that should be part of the value proposition to site owners.

Another pending draw for site owners that Yahoo mentions: “as Updates are implemented across Yahoo!, publishers will enjoy referral traffic back to their sites from across the Yahoo! Network.”

RWW also points out that Facebook Connect is also available through JS-Kit, so this isn’t the coup that it might seem for Yahoo Updates’ premier. However, with a much larger user base than FB, if Yahoo moves quickly enough it could make great strides in this arena.

What do you think? Are you interested in this kind of information on Yahoo? Will you be using your Yahoo ID to comment in the future?

http://www.RPXnow.com Michael

Interesting article, Jordan. This technology certainly represents the future of online authentication, as identity silos disappear in favor of data and identity portability.

JanRain has a solution called RPX that is similar to Facebook Connect in that users can login to a relying party site using their Facebook account and post content back to their news feed. But RPX also lets users login to sites using their Google, Yahoo, MySpace, AOL or Windows LiveID accounts. Pretty cool. More login choices = more registered users.